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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29398251">The Charleston</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terapsina/pseuds/Terapsina'>Terapsina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Legacies (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Background Lizzie Saltzman &amp; Josie Saltzman, Canon Universe, F/F, Fluff and Humor, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Unspecified Setting, pov lizzie saltzman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:27:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29398251</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terapsina/pseuds/Terapsina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>And now here Lizzie was.</p>
<p>Two days before the Mystic Falls ‘Roarin’ 20s’ Dance, without a dress, without a plan, and without a <i>date</i>.  </p>
<p>/or/</p>
<p>Lizzie's panicking about having forgotten about the latest Mystic Falls dance, when Hope knocks on the door of her room and Lizzie gets an idea.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>90</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Charleston</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>In response to a prompt by isagrimorie: 'Hope and Lizzie practice dancing for yet another Mystic Falls dance, and Lizzie decides to rope in Hope to help her prepare!'</p>
<p>Though I kinda ended up switching it around.</p>
<p>P.S. I changed the summary because I realized that the initial one didn't work and so I kinda started hating it and then I figured: well it's not like I'm not ALLOWED to change my summary. But yeah, sorry if this caused anyone any confusion.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lizzie couldn’t believe she’d let it get this far.</p>
<p>But one thing had lead to another, and before she’d known it she’d been moving from battling a siren set on making her twin into an underwater queen of the damned; to fighting an actual sphinx with Hope and her squad of geeks; to running for her life from something straight out of a horror flick with only the most annoying cousin of Frodo for company.</p>
<p>And now here Lizzie was.</p>
<p>Two days before the Mystic Falls ‘Roarin’ 20s’ Dance, without a dress, without a plan, and without a <em>date</em>. </p>
<p>Her bed was covered in bindings of plans meant for other town events, dresses she’d already worn before - beside which none of them even had the right look for the decade she needed, - and lists of names of Salvatore Boarding School <em>and</em> Mystic Falls High students who didn’t already have dates... which was a list depressingly short this late in the game. The only names really left were ones that made Lizzie’s inner bitch go<em> ick</em>.</p>
<p>Even MG had a date, which admittedly was probably a good thing considering Lizzie’s new resolution to stop trying to use his lingering feelings for her for personal gain.</p>
<p>Usually this was where she’d storm over to Josie’s new room for emergency help. But that was another thing she wasn’t supposed to do anymore and she and Josie hadn’t really yet fully worked out what did and what didn’t count as falling back into their codependent mess.</p>
<p>There was a light knock on the door.</p>
<p>“Come in!” Lizzie called out, her back to the door and voice filled with only semi-controlled panic.</p>
<p>“You’ve got a minute?” came Hope’s voice from the opening doorway.</p>
<p>Lizzie felt the idea drop into her head like a boulder landing in a lake, with a great splash that startled everything in sight into a moment of watchful silence.</p>
<p>If you thought about it, this was all Hope’s fault. It was only fair, really.</p>
<p>Lizzie turned around slowly and took in Hope with narrowed, measuring eyes. </p>
<p>“What?” Hope stared back at her, suddenly looking almost as careful as she had back when they couldn’t stand each other.</p>
<p>“You and the hobbit are still in your <em>off again</em> period of that hot potato game of dating you’re doing, right?” Lizzie said and noted Hope’s big doe eyes and the annoyingly perfect line of her jaw, she’d look amazing with her hair up and curled at the sides to encircle her face.</p>
<p>"Yes?” Hope said, leaning back, probably in response to the manic smile Lizzie felt slowly spreading across her face.</p>
<p>But this could only work if-</p>
<p>Marching forward she pulled Hope into her room and a second later took her place in the hallway.</p>
<p>“Stay here,” she ordered and then closed the door in Hope’s startled face.</p>
<p>Vaulting around she crossed the hallway to knock on the door on the other side of it, and only by sheer will managed to wait for her twin to actually call out a verbal okay before she rushed into Josie’s room.</p>
<p>“Josie!” Lizzie said as soon as she was inside “Do you still have dibs on Hope?”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Dibs. On Hope. Do you still have a crush on Hope?”</p>
<p>“No?” Josie said, not sounding like she entirely knew what was going on.</p>
<p>Lizzie stared at Josie, trying to identify any <em>hint</em> of it being a lie. But as far as Lizzie could see, Josie just looked confused.</p>
<p>But she needed to be certain this time. Clenching her teeth and pulling in a deep breath of air, she decided that the only way to be sure would be to actually explain.</p>
<p>“I need a date to Saturday’s dance. And I just realized that Hope’s perfect, plus I need someone to help me get ready because we’ve been so busy that I <em>actually forgot</em> about it, and now I don’t even have a dress ready and this is a disaster and I need someone to help, and-”</p>
<p>“Lizzie?” Josie interrupted her gently “Do <em>you</em> have a crush on Hope?”</p>
<p>“No!” Lizzie burst out into a laugh.</p>
<p>But now Josie was the one staring at her like she was trying to uncover all of Lizzie’s inner thoughts and-</p>
<p>-but no, that was absurd. </p>
<p>“I just need a date,” Lizzie said.</p>
<p>She and Josie spent a moment longer staring at each other, Lizzie trying to silently convey her honest lack of any and all crushes on Hope Mikaelson.</p>
<p>Eventually Josie was the one to break first. But she did it with a smirk, so Lizzie wasn’t totally sure that she was the one who won here this time.</p>
<p>“I’m not interested in Hope anymore,” Josie said.</p>
<p>“Well, good,” Lizzie nodded awkwardly and turned around to return to her own room.</p>
<p>“So let me know when it’s time for me and Hope to have a talk. Sister to sister’s new girlfriend, I mean.”</p>
<p>Lizzie said nothing, she did however siphon a bit of magic from the handle under her hand to throw a pillow in her sister’s face.</p>
<p>Ugh, twins.</p>
<p>Now for the other part.</p>
<p>Lizzie returned to her room and found Hope waiting for her on her bed. She looked up at Lizzie with one of her smiles, - the wide, honest ones that made her eyes crinkle in the corners - which Lizzie had seen a hundred times before. Though not until very recently, ever directed at her.</p>
<p>“Hope. Andrea. Mikaelson.” Lizzie said, crossing her arms and not letting herself get distracted from her new battle plan. “Do you know how to dance The Charleston?”</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Hope did know how to dance The Charleston, this was apparently due to having once talked her <em>‘essentially adopted brother Marcel’ </em>into teaching it to her. She was however also clearly very rusty, - which was admittedly the case for Lizzie too.</p>
<p>So three hours of practice - the day after Hope had agreed to go with Lizzie to the dance and the day before it was to take place - it was.</p>
<p>Lizzie was pretty sure they looked absolutely<em> ridiculous</em>, which was why Lizzie hadn’t argued when Hope suggested they practice in the forest.</p>
<p>It was also kinda fun.</p>
<p>“One, two, three, four,” Lizzie was counting out the rhythm for the steps as both of them tried to follow the fast pace of the most iconic dance from the 1920s, “five, six, seven, eight.”</p>
<p>She was so focused on moving her arms to follow the choreography they’d come up with, however, that she forgot to keep an eye on how far Hope was from her. And before she knew it she was tripping over Hope’s left foot and taking them both dawn to land on the mossy ground.</p>
<p>Hope burst out laughing as soon as they were down and Lizzie couldn’t help following.</p>
<p>“Ow,” Hope said, between the laughter.</p>
<p>“What are you complaining about? You’re the one with the tribrid healing factor,” Lizzie said, running her hand over her elbow, trying to soothe away the twinge of pain that landing on it had brought up.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Hope answered, still grinning, and reached over to offer her hand “as if you can’t take the pain away yourself.”</p>
<p>Lizzie snorted but took Hope’s hand to siphon off a bit of magic to spell her elbow better anyway.</p>
<p>They got back to their feet, trying to remove the traces of moss now on their clothing, and somehow - before she knew she’d even thought it, - Lizzie found herself asking something she hadn’t realized she’d been thinking about.</p>
<p>“Why did you agree to go to the dance with me, Hope?”</p>
<p>“You presented a compelling argument,” Hope said, just a touch ruefully.</p>
<p>Lizzie rolled her eyes.</p>
<p>So she’d asked her by reminding her that Hope owed her. But she also knows Hope well enough that she knows it wouldn’t have worked if Hope hadn’t wanted to do it.</p>
<p>“But why, really?” Lizzie found herself asking again, more insistently.</p>
<p>“I-” Hope finally said after looking at Lizzie and then staring over her shoulder “-don’t really know.”</p>
<p>Then Hope looked back at her, with a searching look in her eyes that caused something dry to well up in Lizzie’s throat and made her wet her lips nervously. “Why did you <em>ask </em>me?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Lizzie admitted and stared back at Hope, at the tiny bit of moss stuck in Hope’s hair that was almost making her fingers itch with the urge to comb it out.</p>
<p>Inside the back of Lizzie’s head there was a sudden and overpowering urge to throw some more pillows at Josie. She hated when Josie was right.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you guys like it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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